Will city officials give peace a chance after Tuesday’s election?

Mayor Ed Lee likes to refer to folks at City hall as “the city family,” but with so many of them running to boot him out of office, we wonder whether this family is going to need therapy after Tuesday’s election is finally over.

As the campaign for mayor has grown intensely heated – with Lee taking most of the shots – we can’t help but envision the city family sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner that quickly erupts into a food fight. Yes, Mister Mayor, you’ve got mashed potatoes in your mustache.

The mayoral free-for-all has featured Lee, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Supervisors David Chiu and John Avalos, Assessor Phil Ting and Public Defender Jeff Adachi, not to mention a host of former City Hall denizens.

“Never before have so many high-level electeds and former electeds in San Francisco pursued the same brass ring,” said Alex Clemens, a lobbyist and political consultant with longtime ties to City Hall, who said he expects the cordiality that marked the first several months of Lee’s tenure to return post-election.

“San Franciscans will be treated to the sounds of hatchets being buried,” he said. “This election has been more bitter than most, but most people will find ways to begrudgingly or publicly get along because a politician’s interests usually involve having a fewer number of enemies.”

If there’s one relationship that will really need some date nights and rose bouquets, it’s Lee and Herrera. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd said it’s the one duo he has “a genuine concern” about because if they both remain in their current seats, Herrera will be charged with representing the man he’s been slamming in the press.

Ed Lee

We don't realy see Mayor Ed Lee and City Attorney Dennis Herrera grabbing a beer together any time soon. (Lance Iverson/The Chronicle)

“It’s going to need a lot of attention,” Elsbernd said of the transition from combatants to client and attorney.

Charles Marsteller, former head of Common Cause in San Francisco and a longtime City Hall watchdog, isn’t so sure the relationship can be quickly repaired. He said he was taken aback to see a recent campaign mailer from Herrera showing Lee as a puppet wearing a pin reading “Republican approved.” It questions Lee’s relationship with Recology, which holds the city’s garbage hauling contract, and says the Central Subway project is “loaded with sweetheart deals for (Lee’s) friends.”

“It just took my breath away,” Marsteller said of the mailer. “Mr. Herrera’s been fairly supportive of the party line and now he’s implying that there’s something wrong with the party line, that there’s some puppeteering going on.”

Marsteller said he wonders not only how Herrera will be able to represent Lee, but also whether he will go to court to ferret out the corruption he has pointed out in the campaign – or whether he’ll tow the party line.

Herrera said he intends to be sitting in Room 200 when all this is said and done. But even if Lee wins and he remains as city attorney, there’s nothing to worry about, Herrera pledged.

“Since Ed Lee decided to get in this race, he and I have had a very good professional relationship,” Herrera said. “I and all the lawyers that work for me understand our ethical duty as lawyers and we always make sure we fulfill our professional obligation to represent our client which is the city and county of San Francisco. I’ve had no problem whatsoever in separating out my professional obligations form the political in terms of my interaction with the mayor on an everyday basis. It’s not something I anticipate being a problem.”

Tony Winnicker, Lee’s campaign spokesman, said the mayor has continued to meet on a weekly basis with Herrera, Chiu and others running against him and that he’s remained perfectly professional.

“Mayor Lee is not the kind of guy who holds personal grudges and despite what some of us on the campaign might prefer, he’s been the first not to personalize these attacks,” Winnicker said.

Political consultant Jim Ross said he expects Herrera, Chiu, Lee and the others to be perfectly civil to each other – but that it might be a different story among their staffs who’ve likely taken to heart the jabs at their bosses. This could manifest itself in, say, Herrera’s staff taking an extra long time to respond to the mayor’s team. “It’s not so much that it’ll be overt,” Ross said. “Most residents of San Francisco won’t notice, but people who have to deal with the city on a really close basis will see it.”

Addisu Demissie, a spokesman for Chiu’s campaign, said he’s confident the board president and mayor will get along just fine – despite Chiu’s initial anger over Lee breaking his promise not to run.

“He’s said from the beginning that they’re competitors on the campaign trail, but colleagues in City Hall,” Demissie said. “After you go through this wringer of a campaign, there is a bond between the candidates…There is a fraternity or sorority that develops.”